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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

RavenWood Forest Retreat

A place to listen deeply to the Earth and the wild spirit within.

RavenWood Forest Retreat is dedicated to deep healing, authentic self-expression and the nurturing of Sacred relationships between the Earth and Her creatures.It is Valerianna's personal sanctuary, and it is also a place for you to come root into Mother Earth, listen and re-connect with the essential nature of yourself. RavenWood offers a variety of ways for you to explore and do your personal work here, both individually and in community.

We are located in Chesterfield, Mass in the foothills of the Berkshires. Natural beauty abounds and an abundance of wildlife share the forest here. This year the lunamoths and polyphemus moths have visited frequently!

~ Shamanic Sound Healing: Using voice, drum, rattles, flutes and ocarinas, crystal and Himalayan bowls and any number of Sacred Sound instruments, you are

washed in the healing vibrations of sound. Based on your individual needs, we set an

intention for the session and use the energy of sound and ritual to release, heal,

connect, and ultimately bring peace and balance to the seeker.

~ Dream Visioning: Using the creative skills of an artist, teacher, Priestess/Wild Woman, gardener and woman close to the cycles, seasons and creatures of the

Earth, Valerianna holds space for you to explore a particular question, idea, or

dream. Working closely with Earth Medicine, we address where you are in your seasonal cycle of manifestation, what Animals might be good teachers, and what stories you hold no longer serve you. Valerianna supports you to find the clarity,

radical self-acceptance and tools to create the cauldron to manifest your goals.

*At RavenWood or Phone sessions available.

~ Spiritual Counseling/Mentoring: With many years as a seeker, ritualist, Priestess, teacher, and unofficial counselor for all, Valerianna can offer a wide variety of tools,

practices and skills for the spiritual seeker. Work with Sacred Sound as a spiritual

Valerianna Claffis an artist, teacher, sound healer, storyteller, ritualist, Wild Spirit and steward of RavenWood Forest Retreat. With over 20 years teaching experience, Valerianna combines her lifelong exploration of creativity, spirituality, music and healing to invite authentic self-expression and deep transformation. Her studies and exploration of shamanic and vibrational healing techniques led to the development of her own form of shamanic sound healing.

She completed the Priestess Path Apprenticeship with ALisa Starkweather and has been a facilitator there since 2000. Valerianna presently teaches art at Clark University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She gardens, creates art in her studio and with the land, offers private healing sessions and rituals celebrating seasonal cycles. She listens deeply to the stories of the land and offers her sanctuary at RavenWood to those in need of a sacred healing space in the embrace of the sweeping hemlocks and the wild spirits of the forest.

"Valerianna is a woman of immense power, able to hold tremendous love and compassion for deep, utter transformation. She's the real deal. The witch in the woods. The one who whispers to the Hemlocks and sings into the deepest places in the collective soul. She is a dreamer, and the dream she is weaving is one of peaceful relations, of knowing one's truth, of trusting time and staying present. Valerianna creates magic with a healthy dose of irreverent humor that keeps it real. She has been a friend, a teacher, a sister, and a healer to me. In my times of deepest transformation, she has stayed in the room with her grounded presence trusting my own inner knowing while listening to her own direct line to spirit. " Elena Zubulake

Offerd by RavenWood Community healers:

WithAnneliese Mordhorst

Pilates/Movement Education

Anneliese is passionate about movement and offering lessons to people of all abilities. She is a trained Pilates Instructor with a rich background in somatic movement methods including Body-Mind Centering® and Continuum Movement and contact improvisation. Anneliese currently offers private and group lessons in Movement Education and the Pilates method. Lessons are individualized to the needs of the client, focusing on whole body awareness, breath,movement coordination, core strength and exercises addressing areas of chronic discomfort.

Gene loves and learns from the natural world. His early interests, including Native American culture and Buddhist

meditation, have led him to a grounding in his own European ancestors’ roots and traditions. For the past 15 years, he has studied with R.J.Stewart, Scottish author and teacher, and is authorized by R.J. to teach Inner Temple Traditions classes. At RavenWood Gene offers workshops from R.J.Stewart’s body of work. They include practical exercises, guided visualizations, and meditation forms which can awaken and deepen ones spiritual contacts; with teachers and guides in the Solar realm above, and with Faery Cousins in the Earth below. At RavenWood, Gene also offers men's circle.

~ Inner Temple Traditions* Meditation

August 9, August 23, September 13 - 2 to 5 pm

Attend any one or all three

These three afternoon sessions, presented by Gene Hall, offer an opportunity to experience

spiritual communion with the Four Inner Temples and work in the timeless Inner Convoca-

tion of priestesses and priests. Practicing these simple and practical exercises, guided visual-

izations, and meditation forms for five to ten minutes each day can make profound changes

to one’s awareness.

* The Inner Temple Traditions is a line of teaching created and mediated by R J Stewart, Scottish author, musician, and teacher. This form of spiritual initiation was taught to R J by his mentors W G Gray and Ronald Heaver, who were both major figures and spiritual adepts in the Western Tradition in the 20th century. R J has developed it in his books and classes over the last 30 years. Gene has studied with R J Stewart for the past 15 years, and is authorized by R J to teach Inner Temple Traditions classes.

~Men’s Circle at RavenWood with Gene

September 27 - 2 to 5pm

This afternoon gathering, facilitated by Gene Hall, is a call for men to come together, share, challenge, and discover in a respectful and supportive manner. Through ongoing ritual, council, chant, and journey we seek new understandings about those male qualities that no longer serve us, about those that have been lost generations ago, and about those that we can rediscover, create, and embody anew, to better serve Life in these times ahead.

We are excited about our new Yome workshop and retreat space. It is tucked into a sacred grove of hemlocks with easy access and with a presence of the deep forest. This is not the most flattering photo, it is dressed up now with flags and torches. The inside is cozy with blankets on the earthen floor and back jacks for comfortable sitting. RavenWoodForest is amazingly quiet of human-made noises, and full of birdsong, frog songs and whispering stones.

On retreat here you can explore the 11 acre forest, walk the labyrinth, sit in the garden, walk down the road to the fields and pond or drive to the Chesterfield Gorge, swim at the bend, and receive a healing session. You can choose a quiet retreat or receive a Guided Retreat to help you sink deeply into the Earth during your time here. You might begin the day withSound Healing Session with Valerianna or a Pilates/Movement Education session with Anneliese. Or choose a Ritual Retreat with Valerianna in the forest with drum, sounding, journeying, movement, Sacred Art and ritual. If you stay the night, you may choose to have Valerianna offer Sacred Sound and Story before you dream.

The Earth is calling us to remember, listen deeply and align with the energy and spirit of the more-than-human world. When we find peace within ourselves, we can more easily create peace around us. We do this work for all humanity, it is NOT SELFISH to want time away, time for yourself, time to be in nature. It is essential to our health and well-being as humans to nurture, heal and find time to dream. It is also essential to our survival as a species to come back to and I/Thou relationship with All That Is. We are in the times of great change. Its amazing that something as seemingly small as personal retreat time is a Radical Act of Self Love, and, for that matter, an act of love for all!At RavenWood, we celebrate the Wild Spirit that calls to you to come, be, heal and remember your Sacred Self.

Rates:

Personal Day Retreats : 10AM- 5PM

Open Retreats ~ $15-$35 sliding scale

Guided/Ritual Retreats ~ cost dependent on services received

Overnight Retreats ~ $25-$45 / per person

~ Come for the day retreat and stay over until 10AM.

~ Come in the evening, arrive at 5PM and leave by 5PM the following day.

~ Just for the night: in at 5PM, out at 10AM ~ $10 donation per person

Renting the Yome

The yome is also available to rent for your class, gathering or group retreat. Call for rates.

About Me

I dwell in a peaceful forest clearing amongst tall, sweeping hemlocks. A gathering of oaks encircles my home, and ravens cling to the shadows in the deep shade of the forest beyond. They gift me with squawking and rhythmic beats of wings and call to life the wild spirit within. The mosses, stones and trees, creature beings and spirits of the deep wood whisper, inspire and enchant. I remember and dream and reclaim myself as a sacred being in the web of all life, doing my best to live my life between the culture to which I belong, and the forest which is my true home.
I make things visual in watercolors, oils, ink, scratchboard, and clay/mixed-media. I sing ancient sounding songs (so I'm told) and tell stories from magical realms and the land of dreams.